ST. LOUIS (AP) -Only a week ago, Steve Stricker sat sullenly in front of a scoring terminal after opening with a 69, looking as though he was about to lose his PGA Tour card.
``What do you hear?'' he said when a visitor walked up.
The topic was the Ryder Cup, and Stricker was desperate to get on the side. He was bumped out of automatic qualifying in the final event, the PGA Championship, and this was his last chance to make an impression on Paul Azinger before the U.S. captain made his four picks.
To the surprise of only Stricker, he was among the four choices.
Thrilled?
Just look at him Friday at the BMW Championship, where Stricker walked out of the scoring hut with a smile on his face and a 4-under 66 on his card, leaving him one shot behind Camilo Villegas.
``It was a lot different than the last two weeks,'' Stricker said. ``I did feel a little more at easy. I didn't feel as much pressure on every shot. I felt a lot more relaxed.''
Villegas is relaxed in his own way.
The 26-year-old Colombian, popular more through marketing than performance, has been building toward his first PGA Tour victory. Last week, he started the final round only one shot out of the lead, shot a 2-over 73 and was an afterthought when Vijay Singh shot 63 to win by five shots.
``It's a process,'' Villegas said about winning. ``I felt good on Monday, but it just happened one guy kicked our butts.''
Villegas tied for third at the TPC Boston, and he kept right on going with eight birdies in the rain-delayed opening round at Bellerive Country Club. He ran off four straight birdies on the front nine, starting with a 40-foot putt on No. 5 and finishing with back-to-back birdies inside a foot.
His only flaws were consecutive bogeys around the turn, and a bogey on his final hole when he chipped weakly to 8 feet and pushed the putt.
Stricker had a lot of company at 66, with Ryder Cup teammate Steve Stricker and Andres Romero, Tim Herron and Stuart Appleby. Five more players were at 67.
In fact, 36 players in the 69-man field in the third stop of the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup broke par. That was largely a product of a soft, soggy Bellerive that played long because of the wet conditions, but features greens that could be attacked.
Vijay Singh had to settle for a 70.
The big Fijian remains virtually a lock unless someone close in the standings wins the last two events. But he hardly looked like the guy who won a playoff at Barclays and closed with a 63 to win in Boston.
He missed putts that had been going in from everywhere. Trying to putt with the blade of his sand wedge through the first cut of rough on the par-3 sixth, he stubbed the shot and took bogey. With a wedge in his hand, he came up 20 yards short of his mark and flipped his club to the ground.
``It's not an easy golf course,'' he said. ``The greens were slower than what we practiced on.''
Sergio Garcia, No. 2 behind Singh by more than 12,000 points, was trying to move to the top of the leaderboard until he hooked his tee shot on the 610-yard eighth, where it hit a spectator and kept from going well off the fairway. He hooked his second shot into the rough and wound up with bogey, sending him to a 68.
Garcia and Mike Weir, who is No. 3 and shot 69, played in the same group as Singh. Garcia also played with him in the final round at the TPC Boston, only it wasn't the same Singh.
``He hit more bad shots then he has the last two weeks,'' Garcia said. ``But I've got to focus on one thing. Even if he doesn't do great, I still have to do very well.''
The public parking lot was wiped out by the rain, the tournament started a day late under gray conditions, and the gallery still turned out in strong numbers, a tribute to a golf-mad city that hasn't seen this caliber of play since the 1992 PGA Championship, won by Nick Price.
Villegas advanced to the third round of the playoffs by making the cut at TPC Boston, and his tie for third enabled him to move up 33 spots to No. 25. One more solid week will get him into the Tour Championship.
Herron, however, was on his way home until closing with a 65 to tie for fifth and advance to St. Louis. He kept right on going, playing with confidence from his first top 10 of the year, finishing his round with a birdie. His only concern was the 36 holes that awaited Saturday to make up for the washout Thursday.
``Tomorrow will be a test, because I'm not in great shape,'' said the Minnesotan known as ``Lumpy'' for a reason.
How would be prepare?
``I'm going to hit a few bunker shots and then go to bed,'' he said.
Perry was among those that had his mind on the cup - not the FedEx Cup, but the Ryder Cup in two weeks. Ditto for British Open and PGA champion Padraig Harrington, who had a ``respectable'' 69.
Harrington said his plan was to peak for the Ryder Cup.
``I just didn't envision so much drama in the summer,'' he said of his two majors.
